New optional wave effects. If your computer can't quite handle the reflective water effects and you run with water effects set to "low", try bumping it up one notch to "waves only". That will add some motion and life to the water. You can also set it to "reflections" which is the old "high" setting, or the new "high" which combines reflections with animated waves. There are also some slight improvements to the appearance of the water with water effects set to "low" (no waves or reflections).

Updates to the free demo version: Now you get the jon boat and money for a rod and lures right away, so you can try out the boating.

A fix for the bug in which your bait could sink below the bottom if you're using a bobber.

A keyboard shortcut to switch between driving and fishing. Press the "s" key. Note that it will only work when you're stopped or moving very slowly, and if you have no line out.

The reflection mode looks rather photorealistic but the new wave affect on top of it makes it look more cartoonish, almost like a toon shader. One suggestion would be to have some degree of gradation (and noise) so that the transition from light to dark isn't so sharp. It would help the peaks of the waves look more rounded off, too. Also, if you could make it look less zig-zagged and more wavey (no pun intended), that would help, too.

The other thing is that the bobber looks funny resisting the up and down motions of the waves. It makes it look perpetually snagged. Could the bobber's bobbing be coordinated with the waves?

Last edited by paleodust on Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I understand that this kind of effect is probably a ways off (though I dream of VR Sportfishing looking like this eventually). However, it may prove a good source of inspiration for giving you some ideas on improving the water effects.

Yeah, I'd love to get something to look like the water in Crysis. I hadn't seen it myself, but I'm familiar with their 3D engine. Nice lighting in the water, reflections, refraction, both from above and below.

When they released Far Cry they offered their engine for game developers to use in other games, for a mere million dollars per title. It was a stunning engine then, and since then with Far Cry 2 and Crysis it's certainly continued to improve. I was interested to learn recently that the engine includes a full day and night cycle too, as not too many seem to have that. Of course their engine also requires a rather potent video card to pull it off. What I was mostly hoping to achieve with the waves was some improvement for the low-end computers, so I've kept the rendering pretty simple. I'm still experimenting with some custom shaders that I think may improve it eventually, hopefully while minimizing the system requirements.

The bobber issue is a good point - I haven't used either surface lures or a bobber with the wave effects on. I think I can coordinate their motion with the waves. Getting the lilly pads and other vegitation to move with them would be sweet, but that would take some major computing power.

Yes, the waves are like a outlined cartoon or stained glass mosaic. However, in playing around with the various settings, I downsized the water effects to lowest and found that with the waves and the reflections and all that gone, so are the fish! You see the stumps and bottom structures, but no fish at all. The game is a challenge indeed on this setting, and, with the need to see the surface features gone, the water is sorta green and deep, a nice base.---I am all for graphic updates and innovations, The current reflections are rather Monet-like, and I like that, but: Consider the K.I.S.S principle(Keep It Simple Stupid) and not lose sight of some possible playability factors. I plan on fishing this way at times, just fishing structure and areas with no idea what is actually there. It will be challenging indeed. So while I say, Full Speed Ahead on any innovations, I also say keep a broad sampling of levels of detail so as to allow not only for the various machines out there to find their comfort level, but to allow for each fisherman to find a variety of challenges.

Yes, I think I could get the boat and bobber moving with the waves. Before I went much farther with them I wanted to see what people thought of them.

I'm not sure how hard caustics would be, but they would add a level of realism. That might have to be an optional feature to keep the system requirements reasonable, too. I'll do some research on methods of rendering them.

Another thing I'm exploring is techniques to add more detail to the landscape, hopefully without much impact on performance. I'm thinking of aninated billboards of grass, hopefully that fade into view as you get close to shore.

I updated my video drivers and the outlines on the waves disappeared. So, folks might take that into consideration, making sure everything is up to date.****Now, I see where you are going on this, but since there are ripples aplenty on "Reflections" mode, that remains a mainstay, that and the simplest graphic level due to the challenge of not seeing most of the fish. A way to turn off the sunglasses or more levels of sunglasses might help.****While rippling grass along the bank might be nice, my main concern remains the fishing environment. Mostly vertical timber that climbs out of the water(flooded trees, and more bare brush and small trees to fish in the lakes, (and rivers). Man, I have always wanted to fish some of the southern lakes that have these. And shade. Somewhere besides under the one dock on the lake, some shade to fish. I'd rather the trees come down to the edge of the lake than rippling grass.

Well, it could definitely use both. The more eye-candy, the better (that can be toned down for more obsolete systems). As it stands now, we've got a great fishing sim in a cartoonish world. The more realistic it looks, the better. Obviously, there need to be priorities but a good-looking environment adds so much to the feeling of immersion. After all, most of us fish for the beauty of the environment.